Gosport and Fareham 32, Sandown and Shanklin 3
LEAGUE leaders Gosport and Fareham have only lost one game all season, when they visited the Hurricanes in September.
This match was payback for that loss, as they issued a heavy defeat on the Islanders.
Some of the Hurries started with their minds on the state of the near-frozen pitch rather than the game in hand.
For the first five minutes, both sides swapped high, long kicks testing defences, but the Hurricanes knocked one of these kicks on their 22. The hosts played the advantage and scored a converted try. Soon after, Hurricanes strayed offside and Gosport duly converted the penalty kick.
Hurries started to move play into the hosts half with long kicks from Charlie Sutton, with wingers Luke Chandler and Dan Muir chasing.
In the tight, packs were even, but the hosts’ mobile forwards seemed to dominate open play and another converted try saw them coasting. A penalty and another converted try on the half time whistle saw Gosport in a commanding 27-0 lead.
The second half was much tighter, Sandown and Shanklin conceding only five points, and scoring three themselves.
Their points came in the form of an Alex Howard penalty kick.
Gosports came courtesy of an unconverted try in the dying moments.
Wightlink man of the match was Kern Wales, with the Vikoma man of the match going to Dan Robinson.
Hurricanes host Exiles XV on Sunday in a friendly, kick-off 1pm. Their next league match will be away to Ellingham and Ringwood on January 2.
This is a replay of the match from three weeks ago, as the Rugby Football Union (RFU) ruled against Ellingham and Ringwood’s use of uncontested scrums, which ultimately won them the points.
Sandown and Shanklin: Harris, Thomas, Skelley, Hunter, J. Rees, S. Rees, Tolley, Gough, Booth, Sutton, Chandler, Howard, Robinson, Muir, Wales, Eldridge, Allman, Jones.